From The Archives: VC Scrapbook #03- Pope & Popcorn

As a kid, my favorite part of going to church on Sundays was getting the freebie Catholic newspaper and reading the movie review section during mass!  It always baffled me that priests actually screened and rated movies, even horror movies, to judge if they were suitable for god-fearing Catholic lay people! Based on the ratings, my parents sometimes wouldn't let me see a particular movie if it was rated 'O' (Morally Offensive)!  I always wondered how a priest could watch the very same movie and his soul wouldn't be eternally damned but mine would somehow?!  Can you imagine the Pope in his private, holy screening room, in full regalia and headgear with a bunch of decked out, chain-smoking bishops, watching exploitation films, chuckling over their popcorn that "those suckers will never know what they're missing!"  Here are a few scraps of 70's reviews I collected courtesy of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops! Check out their website- http://www.usccb.org/movies/  They're still partying and watching movies!  On a weird side note, I have heard the urban legend that the Vatican possesses the largest collection of pornography in the world?  Can anybody confirm this?